To the Editor: The Council on Ethical and Judicial
Affairs (CEJA)1 report on medical futility
in end-of-life care and the endorsement of process-based futility policies
are significant and positive advances. The Houston City Wide Taskforce on
Medical Futility,2 which was cited in the
council report, has created such a process-based policy that has been adopted
by a number of large Houston hospitals. We wish to clarify the reference to
the Baylor Guidelines cited in the body of the report. The referenced 1995
Baylor Guidelines are actually a copy of the City Wide Taskforce guidelines,
which were circulated among participating hospitals for review and comment
in early 1995. While 5 of the Baylor-affiliated teaching hospitals are part
of the City Wide Taskforce, the guidelines reflect the views of the entire
task force, which includes many hospitals, public and private, academic and
nonacademic, and religious and secular, in the greater Houston area. A full
listing of the task force members is available elsewhere.2